Okay, so picture this: during the making of Mario Kart World, the developers hit this weird, almost existential fork in the road. Do our favorite plumbers, Mario and Luigi, actually chow down on these magic mushrooms? Or is a little tap enough to supercharge them? I mean, who really knows, right?
Even Shintaro Jikumaru, who’s done his 20-year stint at Nintendo, was scratching his head over this. He and producer Kosuke Yabuki had to double-check with Takashi Tezuka. You know Tezuka, right? The guy’s been there since the original Super Mario Bros.—the go-to guru for all things Marioverse. If anyone should have the inside scoop, it’s him.
So, why this mushroom mystery at all? Well, Jikumaru got this brainwave to throw food into the game. Yeah, hamburgers. In Mario Kart. Picture tiny Mario chomping on a burger mid-race. That kinda led to a whole debate on adding animations for eating.
“We thought, what if we do this drive-thru thing? Characters munching away as they zip around, maybe changing outfits or morphing as they eat.” Yabuki mused. Sounds bonkers, right? But, hey, that’s game development for you.
These hamburgers made them rethink a bit about how the Super Mario universe operates. Funny enough, in a recent chat with Nintendo, they spilled the beans:
Yabuki pipes up: “Hey, wait a minute, does Mario eat these mushrooms?” And then laughs, probably knowing how wild it sounds.
Jikumaru follows: “So we went straight to Tezuka and asked—does Mario actually snack on those?”
And just like that, Tezuka says, “Yep, he does.” Simple as that.
Die-hard Mario fans might go, “Duh!” pointing at the Mario & Luigi games or even the Super Mario Bros. Movie. There, you see Mario noshing on mushrooms for power but just brushing past Fire Flowers or Super Stars for a boost. Yet, it never hurts to double-check, right? Especially when different games have their quirks. Like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, where tapping a Super Mushroom feels more like the kart’s getting a secret turbo shot rather than Mario eating it.
But, honestly, there are still loads of mysteries in the Mario universe. Just one of those things, you know? If I ever snag an interview with Tezuka (fingers crossed!), I’ll probably have a laundry list of quirky questions. He might just end up rolling his eyes at me.
